Baker served as Deputy County Court Clerk of Sevier County from 1918 to 1922 and as Deputy Clerk and Master of Chancery Court from 1922 to 1924.
After her first husband's death, Baker went to work for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). On September 15, 1935, she married Howard Baker Sr., who was a widower with two children. The couple raised Baker's two children from his first marriage, Howard H. Baker Jr. and Mary Elizabeth Baker, as well as a daughter of their own, Beverly Irene Baker. She served on the Republican National Committee from 1960 to 1964.[1]
When her husband died suddenly in office on January 7, 1964, Baker ran as a Republican in the special election to fill the remainder of his term, defeating Democrat Willard Yarbrough, a Knoxville journalist. As a candidate for the seat, she promised to serve only as a caretaker who would not seek further election; and she fulfilled that promise, and served from March 10, 1964, to January 3, 1965.[2] While in Congress, she served on the House Committee on Government Operations and advocated for a balanced federal budget. She also championed coal mining interests, the TVA, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission programs in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and cost of living increases in Social Security pensions.[3] As one of ten Republicans from the South, she voted against the Civil Rights Act.[4]
After leaving Congress in 1965, Baker became Director of Public Welfare in Knoxville, Tennessee, a position she held until 1971.[5]
Irene Bailey Baker in Women in Congress, 1917–2006, prepared under the direction of the Committee on House Administration by the Office of History & Preservation, U. S. House of Representatives. Washington: Government Printing Office, 2006.
